As we all know diversity plays a big part in United States today, so the focus of this essay will be on effective communication skills in a diverse workplace, we’re going to find out the barriers of communication between different cultures, how important is diversity to all corporation/organization and how to improve our communication style/skills and how to become better listeners in order to avoid any lack of communication in the near future interactions.
Anybody in a work environment having a good understanding of effective communication skills in a diverse workplace entails will enhance every person’s ability to experience a successful and professional work experience. Misinterpretations in the workplace can be rooted from a variety of cultural differences among distinctive ethnic backgrounds.
Lack of proper communication skills in diverse workplace can cause many discrepancies among co-workers. People live in an increasingly complex world. Effective communication between fellow co-workers from different cultural backgrounds ensures a very successful organization. As we already know in today’s workplace it is very important to be able to communicate with our fellow’s co-workers.
If you ever been around and listened to a monotone person communicate, it’s hard to understand their feelings on a subject. Unless they incorporate their gestures and tone, we are not going to be able to see their point of view and understand their meanings. We live and work around different cultures which it make us more aware of the different people around us, by dealing with diversity on the daily basic this will help us communicate better in the Workplace as well as personal interactions.
“We live in a diverse society and career success de...
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... and communication.
Great communication always starts at the top. For us to become great communicators we first need to be great listeners.
Works Cited
Ronald B. Adler, Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst, Communicating at Work
Columbus, OH McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004.
Judy C. Pearson, Paul E Nelson, Scott Titsworth, Lynn Harter. Human Communication. Columbus, OH McGraw-Hill Companies, 2003.
Certo, Samuel C. (2008). Supervision concepts &ump; skill-building.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Maxwell, John C. (1999). The 21 indispensable qualities of a leader.
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Conrad, C. & Poole, M. Strategic Organizational Communication in a Global Economy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002.
McNamara, C. Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Authenticity Consulting, LLC., 2003.
According to McCormick (2007), the first form of workplace diversity happened in 1948, when President Truman approved Executive Order 9981 whose main purpose was to advance equal treatment and opportuities in the armed forces. Therefore, scholars cite it as the origin of workplace diversity because President Truman the committee tasked to implement the executive order, used it to pursue desegregation in the armed forces. In the business world, many companies long held the belief that the assimiltion of new recruits in an organization required their socialization to adapt to the organization’s existent culture. However, over the last few decades, business organizations have realized that because of various reasons, the orgnizational culture must conform if it must attract and maintain a competitive workforce. This change has been steered by variety of workplace diversity initiatives. Despite the proliferation of such initiatives, the term “workplace diversity” is virtually never defined. Many attempts at defining the term are often in a circular or conclusory manner that does little to strengthen a collective understanding of this term.
Being successful at managing workforce diversity involves attracting and retaining the highest quality individuals in the talent pool. For managers it means learning how to manage human potential sensitively. It requires an ever-increasing awareness of how people from different backgrounds deal with authority, communication, overall business etiquette, and relate to their communities of affiliation. Successful management of workforce diversity is a process that takes place in many stages and on many levels. It requires managers to first recruit a competent and qualified staff, then to accommodate individual needs within the context of the work team and the organization.
This essay will explain issues that occur in culturally diverse workplaces and describe how personal conceptions may contribute to misunderstandings when working with others in culturally diverse workplaces. This essay will also discuss the impact of cultural differences when conflict occurs and it will give suggestions on how to resolve and manage this conflict. An explanation of who to discuss the conflict with in a work environment will also be discussed in this essay. The issues that arise in a culturally diverse workplace need to be known and identified by counsellors to ensure they are aware of any obstacle forming.
Today’s management in the workforce is composed of all types of people verses thirty years ago when white males held a majority of upper-management positions in companies. These positions are now held by a mixture of ethnic back grounds and women who hold just as many if not more management positions then men. Just by looking at the changes in management demographics shows how important it is for people to understand cultural competency in the workplace. Dr. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. (1999) stated, “Diversity is the collective mixture of whomever we have in our workforce characterized by their differences and similarities” (p.11). Managers and supervisors must understand the characteristics of a diversity mature individual; they also need to be able to articulate the differences between affirmative action, managing diversity, understanding and valuing diversity to build skills that transforms awareness into productive and supportive workplace behaviors.
The workforce in the United States no longer consists of only Caucasian or American workers. According to the 2014 Foreign Summary Report from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (https://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/internatl/companies.shtml) there were 912 foreign companies registered and reporting with the SEC. Additionally, companies employ people from other countries locally as well as overseas and relocate or expand to other parts of the world due to globalization. All employees, whether from this country or another, have language and cultural differences that can cause misunderstanding and miscommunication among coworkers. In order to understand how other cultures communicate, we should learn about other cultures and the ways they communicate with each other. When all team members make an effort to understand each other better, a more cohesive team is formed. International
A large number of people from other countries come to the United States to get an education or for many other reasons and to be able to pursue the American dream. In our society and especially in workplace environment we meet people from different cultures and it’s essential to be able to work with them. It is so much easier to get along with each other when we can understand our cultural differences. It is very important to understand cultural, ethnic, and gender differences by managers and professionals in a business setting.
The role of diversity in organizational communication processes should include “various approaches to the multicultural workplace and consider the ways in which diversity can make organizations more effective and better places to work.”(Miller, 2014, p. 216) Managing diversity takes time and effort and organizations today must mitigate issues and differences by incorporating diversity communications into their communications plan. To be considered a multicultural organization communication “moves beyond the concept of support for minority members to the institution of policies that deliberately capitalize on cultural and gender diversity”. (Miller, 2014, p. 223). The topic of diversity
In reviewing organizational communication as people, there are occurrences that allow for people of different cultural perspectives and who may speak different languages to create relationships to achieve diverse purposes. These relationships are forged when human interactions and communications amongst people who share similar interest both work and interpersonal interactions.
My communication ability was strengthened because of the different opportunities I got to interact with people from diverse cultures. This opportunity enabled me to build on my communication skills with individuals of various accents and languages (Kourova & Modianos, 2013). On multiple occasions, I can understand effectively and interpret messages, negotiate meanings, as well as reduce the possibility of wrong interpretations.
Communication is perhaps one of the most significant aspects of a workplace environment, and is essential to relaying policies, strategies, and concepts. In this exercise, sample questions for a workplace survey on communication will be given, along with the reason for the type of survey used. Strengths and limitations associated with the survey will also be discussed. Finally, multicultural considerations will be taken into account in regards to the survey. Understanding how individuals give and receive information may provide significant insight about the communication abilities of an organization.
Diversity in the workplace is important for employees because it manifests itself in building a great reputation for the company, leading to increased profitability and opportunities for workers. Making sure all members, students, parents and guarding’s are welcomed at all times in a well-mannered environment Workplace diversity is important within the organization as well as outside ensuring all different are put aside and everyone can come together and work well as a great team.
...cation. It is important to be aware of all of these different factors. Most importantly, it is vital to know that not all communication will end with a positive result and to know when a specific communication needs to be stopped so there are not long term effects of one bad communication. Being a well-rounded communicator is not only vital for a successful career but can also be the difference in promotions and raises.
With the rapid growth in globalization there are a number of firms who have taken their businesses abroad. Their challenge, cross cultural management and communication. An effective communication strategy begins first with understanding who the sender of the message is and who the receiver of the message is. Many companies have realized this and offer training in the different cultures to help better facilitate communication between leaders (Cross-Cultural Communication, mindtools.com). Without this basic understand between sender and receiver it can be very difficult for companies of multicultural to even begin to communicate. The second important understanding is that leaders must demand a cultural tolerance of acceptable behavior between cultures to facilitate effective communication (Cross-Cultural Communication, mindtools.com).
Wells, Krystal. "Business Communication Skills." Communicating in a World of Diversity. 6 Mar. 2012. Blogger. 20 Mar. 2014 .
Globalization has made intercultural communication inevitable. Communicating with other cultures characterizes today’s business, classroom, and community. Technology especially the internet has increased the probability that whatever is documented online will be read by someone from another culture. Intercultural communication is of importance in any career field, thus the art of knowing how to communicate with other cultures should be a workplace skill that is emphasized. This is a conceptual paper whose purpose is twofold. First the paper gives a synopsis of the importance of efficient and competent intercultural communication in various career fields; namely education, business, medicine and in counseling. Secondly, the paper presents